The Ghost of a Thousand – Club Subculture, SU Academy 11/2/2010

 

In the last year The Alternative Music Society has transformed from its humble beginnings to maybe the most organised group of Metalers, Greebos and Scenoids this pokey little university has ever known. Now moving their sights towards live music it was to my complete astonishment when they announced we would be having The Ghost of a Thousand, one of the most innovative and critically acclaimed rock acts of recent times, playing in what is essentially our canteen.
G.O.A.T. are an aggressive five piece punk act formed in Brighton in 2004. The band spent years touring with Gallows, Alexisonfire and Anti-Flag amongst many others and steadily rose to fame after the release of two albums and countless praise from the music press. Their first release ‘This is where the fight begins’ was a relentless onslaught of punk energy and 2009’s ‘New hopes, New demonstrations’ was slickly produced and relatively darker, but no less energetic.

The band bring to the genre a kind of intelligence, sense of humor and tight musicianship while still maintaining the ability to simply rock harder than anything else in the room. Like many others I was pretty excited to see them make noise in the Helmore Building.

Apparently unhappy with the distance between himself and the crowd singer Tom Lacey uses the microphone cable to lasso a large portion of his audience forward. Their set opener ‘Moved as mountains…’ causes chaos that not even the huge sign reading ‘Caution, moshing can result in injury’ could have prepared the audience for. Thirty seconds later my good friend Toby bounces into an unsuspecting bystander covering her in the two pints of snakebite that she was holding.

Next the single from their newest album ‘Bright Lights’ then later ‘Knees, toes, teeth’ and ‘Left for dead’. The set consisted of songs new and old, luckily many members of the crowd know every word. Singer Lacey takes this opportunity to headlock several people (inc. me) and scream the vocals directly in their faces.

Finally just before their set ends, the band request the standard ‘Split the audience in two, make them run into each over when the beat drops’ thing. However, this wall of death is going to be different, Lacey explains. – ‘Instead of running in and beating the shit of each-over you’re going to run and hug, high-five, kiss, whatever you want, the person opposite you’. And with that surprisingly utopian gesture the band finish one of the best evenings this Student Union has seen in a long long time.

 

 

 I was lucky enough to sit and have an albeit short interview with singer Tom Lacey afterwards

JH – Last time I saw you guys you played a pretty big gig with Alexisonfire and others at the Junction. I guess tonight was slightly different to what you’ve played recently?
TL – I wouldn’t really say it was that different. We’ve played some big shows in the past but we still tend to play smaller rooms when we’re headlining.
JH – And I suppose smaller places give you more of a chance to get in the audiences faces like you were doing tonight?
TL – Oh no. You can still do the same in larger places, there’s just more security to jump over that’s all.
JH – It seems like your peers are quite important to you. How do you think the UK punk/hardcore is going at the moment? Would you say it’s dwindling?
TL -It’s still good, There are a lot of bands out there that we really love. But I guess it may be a little, at the end of the day it’s got nothing to do with the way that your hair looks, you know.
JH – Now, I’ve been stalking you guys on Twitter. You mentioned something about demoing for a double album?
TL – (Laughs) Actually that was our little joke. We are demoing for the third album though, just experimenting.
JH – Was it a hint that you may be moving away from writing shorter three minute punk songs?
TL – Not really sure. We’ve been together for seven years now and at the moment we’re just concentrating on keeping it new and fresh for ourselves.
JH – Have you got anyone lined up to produce the new album?
TL – We’ve got ideas, nothing definite. We can’t really say anything at the moment. Just in case it turns out to be someone different and I end up looking like a complete twat.
JH – Fair enough. And finally, do you think Anglia Ruskin Student Union should stage more gigs like this in the future?
TL – Well, yeah. (Looks at me as if he didn’t need to answer that question.) They put on a good rock night. Plus some of the music they were playing like Sepultura I haven't heard since I was 14, that’s always good.

 Final congratulations go to The Alternative Music Society for their hard work putting on these events + also for finally giving the assortment of long-haired freaks at this university a voice. Well done everyone.